Layoffs and Job Reductions

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News about Layoffs and Job Reductions, including commentary and archival articles published in The New York Times.

Chronology of Coverage

Feb. 23, 2015

Rachel L Swarns The Working Life column examines plight of Lorraine Guest, nurse and union leader who is scrambling to secure jobs for about 1,400 employees at FEGS Health and Human Services; organization, one of the largest social service agencies in New York City, is closing all of its programs as investigators delve into its serious financial problems. MORE

Feb. 7, 2015

Siemens announces plans to cut 2.3 percent of its global workforce, or 7,800 jobs, with 3,300 of those cuts taking place in Germany. MORE

Feb. 3, 2015

Canadian oil sands companies are trying to stem losses as crude prices drift near seven-year lows; big firms like Suncor and Shell Canada are cutting jobs, but new projects in industry will increase oil sands production by 25 percent, to 4.8 million barrels daily in 2015; biggest concern is whether companies can break even at current prices. MORE

Jan. 23, 2015

DreamWorks Animation says it will cut its movie production and lay off 500 employees, or 19 percent of its staff. MORE

Jan. 22, 2015

American Express announces plans to cut around 6 percent of its total work force, or more than 4,000 jobs, in 2015 as part of effort to improve efficiency; company reports 11 percent gain in fourth-quarter profit. MORE

Jan. 22, 2015

EBay announces plans to cut 7 percent of its work force, or 2,400 positions globally, in effort to address slowed growth in auctions due to competition. MORE

Jan. 20, 2015

Plummeting oil prices have cast pall over gleeful mood in Midland, Texas, and elsewhere in state's oil belt; companies are scaling back projects and announcing layoffs; residents, long accustomed to cycles of boom and bust, are rolling out alternative plans to earn side income and save money. MORE

Jan. 16, 2015

Target will close its 133 stores in Canada, conceding defeat in ill-fated expansion gamble after less than two years; will place operation under bankruptcy protection, eliminating some 17,600 jobs and citing more than $2 billion in losses. MORE

Jan. 16, 2015

Bombardier says it will lay off roughly 1,000 employees and post $1.4 billion write-down following suspended development of its Learjet 85 model; move, following string of 2014 reductions in company's workforce, adds to investor anxiety as company prepares to mount its first direct challenge to Airbus and Boeing in the commercial aircraft industry. MORE

Jan. 9, 2015

Coca-Cola says it will cut 1,600 to 1,800 jobs globally as part of $3 billion in costs it hopes to shave over the next several years; cuts come as soft drink sales continue to decline as health-conscious consumers adjust their eating and drinking preferences. MORE

Dec. 27, 2014

Experts and elected officials express concerns that falling oil prices may strongly impact local economies in many of nation's oil- and gas-producing states; projected effects include job losses, budget deficits, and freeze on infrastructure-related projects. MORE

Dec. 17, 2014

Layoffs are announced at The New York Times after voluntary buyouts fail to cover newsroom goals to cut costs; newspaper and Newspaper Guild of New York report that 21 union employees will be laid off in the coming days. MORE

Dec. 11, 2014

BP says that it will cut jobs and take $1 billion in restructuring charges over next five quarters in response to falling oil prices. MORE

Dec. 5, 2014

GlaxoSmithKline says it will eliminate about 900 jobs in marketing and research in Research Triangle Park, NC, by the end of 2015 as company restructures. MORE

Dec. 1, 2014

David Carr The Media Equation column reflects on round of buyouts being offered by The New York Times in effort to cut staff and stretch existing revenue over smaller cost base; notes that company is likely to lose people with many decades of professional experience and hard-won skills, but holds that newspaper's options could be far worse in a business as challenged as journalism. MORE

Nov. 19, 2014

Essay by Erin Davies discusses how she and her husband kept stress of his repeated layoffs from further stressing their marriage; says game they played where they imagined being recipients of a trust fund enabled each to remember their shared responsibility, and to acknowledge to each other how profoundly scared they both were. MORE

Nov. 13, 2014

United States Army, faced with declining budgets, cut its force in 2014 to 508,000 soldiers from 530,000, and has plans to trim an additional 20,000 troops in 2015; cuts have largely affected low-ranking enlisted soldiers but are beginning to fall on officers who were clearly intending on making a career in the military. MORE

Nov. 5, 2014

Warner Bros begins layoffs that will ultimately eliminate about 1,000 jobs, or 12.5 percent of studio's total staff. MORE

Nov. 4, 2014

Sprint says it will lay off 2,000 employees as it tries to cut costs and turn around several quarters of losses. MORE

Oct. 7, 2014

Time Warner's Turner Broadcasting System group says it is cutting its work force by about 10 percent, or about 1,475 jobs; cable television unit is trying to overhaul its business in face of ratings declines and digital revolution that is upending how people watch television. MORE

Oct. 2, 2014

New York Times announces plan to eliminate about 100 newsroom jobs, as well as a smaller number of positions from its editorial and business operations; company will offer buyouts and resort to layoffs if enough people do not leave voluntarily. MORE

Sep. 13, 2014

Metropolitan Opera, which promised to match pay cuts that its major unions agreed to in August with equivalent cuts to its nonunion payroll, says it is eliminating 22 of its 254 administrative positions, mostly through layoffs. MORE

Sep. 4, 2014

Gannett Company's flagship newspaper USA Today lays off roughly 70 people from its newsroom and business staff, under 10 percent of its total work force. MORE

Aug. 27, 2014

Time Warner's Turner Broadcasting System division says it is offering buyouts to about 600 employees; buyouts are first step in ambitious effort to overhaul a portfolio of cable networks that have struggled with declining ratings. MORE

Aug. 26, 2014

Casino employees in Atlantic City are bracing for shutdowns and mass layoffs that will leave more than 6,500 workers without a job. MORE

Aug. 19, 2014

Internal document from Time Inc shows that Sports Illustrated rated its journalists on whether their work benefited advertisers; criterion was one of eight used by company in deciding which staff members to lay off. MORE

Aug. 11, 2014

Website Sports on Earth, partly owned by Gannett Co, loses most of its staff after Gannett announces spinoff of its print companies; Major League Baseball will continue to own and operate site. MORE

Aug. 8, 2014

Bloomberg Media cancels its Washington-based talk show Political Capital With Al Hunt and lays off about 25 employees. MORE

Aug. 3, 2014

Great Northern Paper mill in Millinocket, Me, spurred prosperity for generations, but in wake of plant's 2008 shutdown from competition and declining demand, the economically depressed town is flailing; thousands of residents are unemployed and town's schools, library and emergency services are underfunded. MORE

Jul. 18, 2014

Microsoft announces that it will lay off up to 18,000 employees, many of them from company's troubled Nokia phone business, in an attempt at reinvigoration; cuts would be largest in company's history, and are the first major change by new chief executive Satya Nadella; Microsoft, while still profitable, has been consistently left behind as newer companies like Google and Facebook define the next generation of technology. MORE

Jul. 16, 2014

Microsoft is planning to announce layoffs that will substantially exceed the largest layoffs in the company’s history, according to several people briefed on the decision. MORE

Jul. 3, 2014

Dow Jones says Wall Street Journal has cut between 20 and 40 staff members in recent weeks. MORE

Jun. 28, 2014

Caesars Entertainment announces that Showboat casino in Atlantic City will close on Aug 31, putting more than 2,100 employees out of work; casino's fate is only latest sign of distress in one of the largest gambling markets in the country, where industry revenues have plummeted to $2.9 billion in 2013 from a high of $5.2 billion in 2006. MORE

Jun. 24, 2014

Avon Products says that it will cut 600 more jobs as it tries to reduce its spending. MORE

Jun. 3, 2014

Entenmann’s bakery, first established in Brooklyn in 1898, is shutting down its Bay Shore, LI, plant and will lay off 178 of its 265 workers; cakes, pies and cookies will still be sold in the New York area, but they will be baked at other plants. MORE

Jun. 1, 2014

Harrah's Tunica, Mississippi's largest casino, is closing, potentially leading to loss of up to 950 jobs; disquieting reality underlining the deep threat facing Mississippi and other states with legalized gambling is that there may be too many casinos chasing too few gambling dollars. MORE

May. 23, 2014

Hewlett-Packard reports fiscal second quarter net earnings of $1.3 billion, or 66 cents a share, up from $1.1 billion one year earlier; chief executive Meg Whitman announces that company will lay off 11,000 to 16,000 employees, saying it will take a long time to get company on right course. MORE

May. 17, 2014

Alina Tugend Shortcuts column; experts say fears of losing jobs, or 'perceived job insecurity,' hangs over many workplaces, even as immediate impact of recession, including widespread buyouts and layoffs, may be fading; perception often leads to wide-ranging negative effects on workers and companies alike. MORE

Apr. 4, 2014

Star-Ledger of Newark, New Jersey's biggest newspaper and among the largest in the nation, announces that it will cut 167 jobs, including 40 newsroom positions, in reorganization; layoffs affect Star-Ledger's nonunion employees, which is about 500 of the paper's 750 staff members. MORE

Apr. 3, 2014

Digital First Media says it is shutting down Project Thunderdome, ambitious, centralized effort to provide national and foreign articles to the 75 newsrooms owned by the company; more than 50 people will lose their jobs, and more layoffs are likely. MORE

Mar. 8, 2014

Juror in Manhattan terrorism trial of Sulaiman Abu Ghaith, a son-in-law of Osama bin Laden, notifies Federal District Court in Manhattan that she has been laid off from her job because of her service on the jury; Judge Lewis A Kaplan tells juror that she will be provided with a lawyer at no cost to deal with the 'outrageous' problem on her behalf. MORE

Mar. 7, 2014

Disney’s struggling video game and Internet division, Disney Interactive, lays off roughly 700 employees, or 26 percent of its global staff, in a major retrenchment that includes a shift in advertising strategy for Disney.com; scale of layoffs is larger than expected. MORE

Feb. 28, 2014

Australian carrier Qantas Airline announces a painful cost-cutting program that includes eliminating 5,000 jobs, 15 percent of its workforce, highlighting the pressure of intensifying competition as airlines reach for shares of the growing Asian air travel market. MORE

Feb. 15, 2014

Floyd Norris Off the Charts column observes that while Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that fewer people in United States lost their jobs in 2013, there have also been fewer job openings; rate of firing in American economy fell to new low in 2013, but hiring activity has been slow to recover. MORE

Feb. 11, 2014

Barnes & Noble lays off less than 100 people in its Nook device unit, latest sign of company's difficulties in executing its digital strategy. MORE

Feb. 7, 2014

Sony, predicting loss of 110 billion yen, or about $1.1 billion, in current fiscal year, will sell its unprofitable personal computer unit and turn its troubled television manufacturing business into a separate, wholly owned subsidiary; company will also cut 5,000 jobs; reports quarterly net income of 27 billion yen, or $267 million, following loss of 10.8 billion yen one year earlier; revenue rose to 2.41 trillion yen from 1.95 trillion, though main factor was weaker yen. MORE

Feb. 5, 2014

Magazine giant Time Inc begins new round of layoffs as part of a companywide restructuring that will result in loss of about 500 jobs; cuts are announced as Time Inc prepares to be spun off from its parent company, Time Warner. MORE

Jan. 30, 2014

Hale Global, which acquired majority share of local news enterprise Patch from AOL, lays off hundreds of employees in reorganization. MORE

February 7, 2015, Saturday

Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin, a possible contender for the Republican presidential nomination, proposed a new spending plan for Wisconsin that relies on borrowing and spending cuts and steers clear of tax increases.

Multimedia

Set in Seoul, South Korea, "No Regret" centers on Sumin (Lee Young-Hoon), who leaves the orphanage where he grew up and heads to the city to study art design. After losing his job at a factory due to layoffs, he finds himself working as a prostitute